Did you know?Flours and meals of the unbolted variety are no longer a staple of most pantries, but the occasional recipe does call for them. The adjective "unbolted" comes from a somewhat obscure verb "bolt," meaning "to sift (as flour) usually through fine-meshed cloth." This "bolt" — which dates to the 13th century — comes from Anglo-French "buleter," itself of Germanic origin. "Unbolted" was once common enough to have been employed in figurative use as well as literal. In Shakespeare's King Lear a character is described as an "unbolted villain."

This word was particularly charming to me, considering the cool beehive quern I saw in the GW A&S display last week.

absinthe, n. and adj.

Pronunciation:Brit./ˈabsɪnθ/, /ˈabsãt/, U.S./ˈæbˌsɪnθ/

Forms: 18– absinth now nonstandard, 18– absinthe.

Etymology: < French absinthe highly alcoholic bitter spirit distilled from wine mixed with wormwood (a1804 or earlier: see quot. 1804 at sense A. 1), transferred use of absinthe wormwood (see absinthn.). Compare earlier absinthn. With use as adjective compare French absinthe having the yellow-green colour of absinthe (1925 or earlier).

A. n.1. A highly alcoholic bitter aniseed-flavoured spirit, usually green in colour, traditionally distilled from wine flavoured with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and other herbs, and served diluted with sugared water. Also fig.

Absinthe was popular among French artists and intellectuals in the late 19th cent., but was widely banned during the 20th cent. at the instigation of wine producers and temperance campaigners. This ban was usually linked to the alleged toxicity of wormwood (which contains small amounts of the neurotoxin thujone, found also in plants such as sage and tansy). Cf. absinthismn.